Advances in window technology have reduced energy consumption in buildings by affecting and improving heating, cooling, and lighting properties of the windows. Often, such advances involve the application of coatings that affect thermal and/or transmission properties of the window. For example, coatings may be applied to a window to reduce radiative heat transfer, increase visual light transmittance, reduce glare, etc.
Low-emissivity (“low-e”) coatings are known. These coatings commonly include one or more reflective metal layers and two or more transparent dielectric layers. Low-e coatings generally have a high reflectance in the thermal infrared and, depending on the particular configuration, can have varying overall solar performance in terms of performance indicators such as “solar heat gain coefficient” and “shading coefficient.” A tradeoff is sometimes made in higher solar performing low-e coatings whereby the films selected to achieve the higher solar performance have the effect of restricting the amount of visible light that is transmitted through the window. As a consequence, windows bearing these coatings may not allow a sufficient amount of natural daylight into a building space. Therefore, it may be desirable to include windows having both high solar performance and high visual light transmission in the same building space. Currently, however, the only means to achieve both of these characteristics in the same building space is to provide separate windows each bearing one of the respective coatings. Each of these separate windows must then be installed with its own framing, thereby reducing the maximum glass to wall ratio that may be achieved in the building space, and increasing installation costs relative to that of a single window.
Therefore, systems and methods that provide for high solar performance and high visual light transmission in a single window sheet may be desirable. Additionally, systems and methods that maximize the effect and/or enhance distribution of the visual light transmitted through such single sheets within a building space may be desirable.